FORMER MORDIALLOC STOCK POUND

555 MAIN STREET MORDIALLOC, KINGSTON CITY

All information on this page is maintained by Heritage Victoria. Click below for their website and contact details.

Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    FORMER MORDIALLOC STOCK POUND - History

    SiteCard data copied on 21/06/2024:The Mordialloc Stock Pound or Detention Yard was used for housing lost animals and wandering stock. Detention yards or stock pounds were common features of small rural townships in the twentieth century in Victoria; several detention yards existed in the neighbouring communities of Cheltenham, Mentone, Moorabbin and Sandringham during this period (Seaside News, 2 December 1916, p. 1; Brighton Southern Cross, 6 September 1913, p. 2; Age, 27 March 1934, p 1). At these locations, animals such as horses, cattle, and stray dogs were kept, returned to their owners at a cost, or sold, or impounded. A detention yard in Mordialloc is noted as early as 1906 in newspaper articles, when a break-in at the yard was reported (Brighton Southern Cross, 30 June 1906, p. 5). The Mordialloc Stock Pound appears in newspapers and street directories into the 1950s (Sands & McDougall, 1935, SLV; Sands & McDougall, 1950, SLV). Newspaper articles include stories of illegally impounded horses, ‘wandering cattle nuisances’, and hundreds of stray dogs (South Bourke and Mornington Journal, 10 August 1916, p.3; Seaside News, 12 May 1917, p. 4; Age, 19 January 1927, p. 1; Age, 18 January 1930, p. 12). Stock Pounds or detention yards were attended to by local residents and were overseen by a ranger, who was occasionally a government official. A man named ‘Hansen’ attended the Mordialloc Stock Pound in 1916, which was overseen by a ranger named W.E. Davies (Seaside News, 19 August 1916, p. 1; Seaside News, 12 May 1917, p. 1). In 1917, Davies recommended to the Moorabbin Shire Council that the fencing at the yard be replaced, and that a local resident be charged with attending the yard and feeding the detained stock (Seaside News 1917). During the 1920s and 1930s, the ranger associated with the Mordialloc Detention Yard was a local figure named B.G. Shelley, who also oversaw several detention yards in the area (Age, 27 March 1934, p. 1). Shelley was also the secretary of the Mordialloc Boat Club and became a council Health Inspector in 1928 (Herald, 3 February 1928, p. 19; Mirror, 22 December 1934, p. 13; Herald, 13 December 1934, p. 8). Indeed, overseeing the detention yard could have been part of his duties as Health Inspector. Mention of the stock pound or detention yard at Mordialloc disappears in 1960, corresponding with the time the yard ceased to appear on maps and aerial photos. After this time, the location of the detention yard appears to have been used as a surface car park and access road to the creek and boatyard storage area with occasional episodes where materials and/or spoil were stored here – see aerial photographs from 1963 (Figure 10), 2009 (Figure 12) and 2021 (Figure 13). The use of this location appears to have remained essentially unchanged since the early 1960s. The location of the former stock pound now lies on the edge of the boat storage area, below the large boat permanently stored there (Figure 2).

    Interpretation of Site

    FORMER MORDIALLOC STOCK POUND - Interpretation of Site

    A review of previous land use of the Mordialloc Stock Pound, indicates that the location, known as Pompei’s Landing, has generally undergone low ground disturbance, with the exception of a 1-2m wide strip running through the site from the installation of the gas pipeline (Figure 14). Ground disturbance since the 1960s until the present appears to have been limited. After dismantling of the stock pound and its attached building between 1957 and 1963 (see aerial photos Figure 9 and Figure 10), the location was used for car parking, vehicle access to the nearby boat ramp on the Mordialloc Creek and boat storage based on a review of aerial photos from the 1970s-2020s (e.g. Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13, Figure 14). Nearmap online imagery and Google Earth Street View photographs shows that a power pole was erected immediately adjacent to the south-eastern corner of the former stock yard footprint between November 2020 and January 2021 (Figure 13). Review of Before You Dig Australia in July 2023 indicates that although there are some local council stormwater pipes, NBN and Telstra communications cables and a gas line in the vicinity, none of the pipe alignments run through the former detention yard footprint (Figure 14). Recent works on the adjoining land parcel to the north-east have involved ground disturbing works to a depth of three metres for the construction of a mixed-use five-storey building, that have encroached into the north-eastern edge of the former stock pound site (Figure 14). In addition, there has been a high-pressure gas pipeline installed through the footprint of the former detention yard. This pipeline would be the most significant disturbance through the former Stock Pound site, and it can be assumed that the installation of the pipeline would have required a trench approximately 1.5-2m wide and at least 1m deep. However, the impact from the gas pipeline is unlikely to have damaged the entirety of the site, and there could be preservation of archaeological features on the northern and southern parts of the site. The archaeological remains that could be present from the Stock Pound site would likely be more ephemeral than for a brick or stone structure – features such as post-holes from fence posts and timber barn or shed, post-hole fill deposits, occupation and demolition deposits including artefacts, and refuse deposits. These archaeological features and artefacts would provide further information about the former use of the site and its structure, any changes or modifications to the site over time, and material confirming dating and the original establishment of the site. Therefore, Mordialloc Stock Pound, does have archaeological potential and has more than low archaeological value as it would meet Thresholds A and B.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    FORMER MORDIALLOC STOCK POUND - Heritage Inventory Description

    A ‘stock pound’ or ‘detention yard’ on the south-eastern side of the Mordialloc Railway Station is shown on archival aerial photographs and historical plans dating from the 1930s and 1940s. The Stock Pound is located slightly north of Main Street, Mordialloc, on the northern bank of the Mordialloc Creek, adjacent to the railway sidings that are located to the east (Figure 1, Figure 2). The former Stock Pound was comprised of two square fenced enclosures, the large one on the north-western side that was approximately 14 x 14m and a smaller one 7 x 7m on the south-eastern side. At the south-western corner was a small roofed building or shed, approximately 5 x 5m in size. This structure was marked with a ‘W’ on an MMBW plan (MMBW 1940; Figure 6) which suggests that it was made of weatherboard. The detention yard, labelled as a ‘Stock Pound’ on the 1933 MMBW plan of the area (MMBW 1933), also appears on a 1940 MMBW plan of the area (Figure 6), and is visible in a photograph of the area from c.1925-c.1940 (Figure 4, Figure 5), nearby to a grouping of trees along Mordialloc Creek, and also in aerial photographs from 1939, 1945 and 1957 (Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9). The detention yard was likely dismantled sometime between 1957 to 1960, as it no longer appears in aerial photographs after 1960 (see Figure 10). Presently the site is an open gravelled car park and boat storage area and vehicle access way to the nearby boat ramp on Mordialloc Creek (Figure 2, Figure 15). A VHI site extent is proposed that as shown on the VHI site extent plan (Figure 2). The footprints of the features of the former Stock Pound have been drawn based on georeferenced MMBW Detail Plan No.4288 from 1940 (Figure 6). The VHI site extent is based on a 10m buffer from the footprint of the former Stock Pound features, but limited on the north-eastern side by the property boundaries (Figure 2).
• Location map
• Explore related places
  • Show:
    -- select -- Nearby Places

  • 
    RULES OF THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB

    

    Victorian Heritage Register H2428
  • NORTH MELBOURNE POTTERY

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
  • STONY CREEK SLIPWAY

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
• Public contributions